Rustic Wedding Decor and Chainsaws

Happy Friday People!

My son, Michael, got married a few months ago.  We small town folks don't spend tens of thousands of dollars on weddings. We sew and bake and craft and our friends and families pitch in to make a nice wedding on a reasonable budget.  That's the way we did it when I got married 32 years ago and that's the way we did it when my son got married.  Thankfully, her family and ours were in agreement on this issue.

My daughter-in-law wanted an elegant but rustic flavor to the decor and when she started talking burlap, wood and canning jars I jumped right on that and volunteered to help out.  So now I can tell you how to get the father of the groom involved in wedding decorations - tell him it involves use of a chainsaw.  Yes, you heard me correctly, wedding decorations, chainsaw.

The reception table decorations called for a "tree cookie", mason jars wrapped with burlap, flowers, candles and photos.

First, we called my Mom, because Granny cans her own veggies and jellies.  Don't buy canning jars I told the kids, we can borrow those.  My Mom, bless her heart, provided a couple dozen freshly washed and packed canning jars.  She's the best!

Next, I made trips to a few stores to buy burlap garland, because believe it or not, burlap garland is in high demand and the stores were selling out.

Then I wrapped 48 jars and tied 'em up with a ribbon! This took a lot longer than I anticipated, but turned out just right.




After shopping around and finding nothing for a reasonable price, I recruited my hero, SuperDave, to help to with the decorations.  I commandeered a few very heavy logs and he hauled them home for me. (we did not cut down a tree)  Thanks, sweetie! Since we currently live in the city, we don't own a chainsaw so we had to rent one. As usual by the time we finished this (quick & easy) part of our project he had been to Home Depot 3 or 4 times due to some equipment malfunctions.  But we got 'er done!  I believe we ended up with about 30 of these beauties.



Is there anything more beautiful than wood?  Trees are such a miracle

 To complete the table decorations, Chelsie (the bride) covered the tables with borrowed crushed velvet table covers.  She painted dollar store picture frames and inserted photos of the happy couple.  We placed the tree cookies on the table with two canning jars on top, one with a candle and one with gerber daisies. The fresh (read free) greenery was from my own backyard. We used magnolia leaves and rosemary.  The silk fall leaves were ordered from the internet and were printed with their names and the wedding date.



The finished table decoration


We were very happy with the finished decorations and the wedding and the reception were both beautiful!

Aren't they cute? 

Have a great weekend!



Live, Love, Laugh,

Laura